Online spending will hit $16.7 billion this holiday season, eMarketer says
Holiday shoppers will spend $16.7 billion online this year, up 29% from $12.95 billion last year, eMarketer Inc. says in its “Holiday Shopping and Buying Online” report released this week.
EMarketer forecasts that consumers will spend $22.3 billion online during the entire fourth quarter, a rise of 31.5% from $16.96 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst and author of the report, says the increases are largely due to the improved performance of retail web sites as well as the heightened sophistication of online shoppers. “The problems that plagued online retailers in the past – web site crashes, poor customer service, inventory problems, poor customer service, etc. – have largely disappeared,” he says.
Consumers, meanwhile, have learned how to better shop on the web. “They are more sophisticated in how they shop over the Internet – using search engines and aggregator sites to compare prices and products – and in they way they exploit online and offline channels.”
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